BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Oct. 23, 2021) – The Stevens Institute of Technology women's volleyball team started the day strong with a 3-0 sweep of Montclair State University Saturday before falling 3-0 to No. 13 New York University in the NYU Tournament at the Brooklyn Athletic Center.
The Ducks took down the Red Hawks to open the day 25-9, 28-26, 26-24 to stretch their winning streak to eight and give Stevens their second victory over a team featured in the latest NCAA regional rankings in the last four matches.
Stevens then took on another team that appeared in the regional rankings in NYU and suffered their first sweep of the season as they fell 25-12, 25-18, 25-12 to close the day with a 22-4 overall record.
In the 3-0 win over Montclair, sophomore
Liz Patterson produced 16 kills on just 31 swings for a .387 attack percentage to lead the Ducks to their 14th sweep of the season. Stevens also got a solid eight-kill, three-block effort from sophomore
Elle Maggio and 25 total assists out of
Kathleen Riegner to lead the offense.
Senior
Elizabeth Chu led the way defensively in both matchups with 18 digs in the first and 10 more in the second. Chu extended her string of consecutive matches with at least 10 digs to 23 and now has 450 total digs this season.
With the victory over the Red Hawks, Stevens will close the regular season with a perfect 8-0 record in neutral site matchups this season. The 22 victories also ties the total from the 2019 season as the Ducks have now won at least 22 matches in eight consecutive seasons dating back to 2012.
The loss to NYU, meanwhile, snapped the win streak to give the Ducks two separate strings of eight straight wins this season.
The Violets, who have lost just once this season, hit. 276 against Stevens and held the Ducks to -.079, their lowest attack percentage of the year.
Inside the Numbers (Match One vs. Montclair)
- Stevens held an advantage at the net with a 45-31 edge in kills and a 7-4 edge in blocks.
- The Ducks hit .231 in the match while holding the Red Hawks to .083.
- In the dominant opening set, Stevens produced an impressive .344 attack percentage while holding Montclair to -.069.
- Chu led the Ducks with three aces in the match while Riegner added two of her own.
- Enkhsanaa Enkhbayar joined Riegner in double figures in assists with 14 while adding five digs and an ace.
- First-year Parker Adkins filled up the stat sheet with 10 digs, six kills and a block in the win.
- Another first-year in Cleo Shannon also had a solid match with seven kills on 18 swings for a .278 attack percentage.
- It was the 13th time in 26 matches this season that the Ducks have held their opponent under a .100 attack percentage.
Unsung Hero (Match One vs. Montclair)
- Junior Ava Smithing was efficient all night as she hit .300 with five kills on 10 swings while adding a pair of blocks.
Inside the Numbers (Match Two vs. NYU)
- NYU held a 38-18 edge in kills, a 9-5 edge in blocks and a 36-16 edge in assists.
- The Ducks were held to season lows in kills, digs, assists and attack percentage.
- Shannon led the way offensively with five kills for Stevens while Smithing and Adkins produced four apiece.
- With six more assists in the match, Riegner now has 1,891 assists in her career and needs just 109 to become the sixth student-athlete in program history to produce 2,000 career assists.
- The Violets used a balanced scoring attack with nine kills each from Haley Holz and Abby Ausmus in the win.
- The .276 attack percentage for NYU was the highest the Ducks have allowed all season.
From the Sidelines (Head Coach Brianna Jones)
- "We played a clean and seamless match to start the day. It was a lot of fun to see our team compete at a high level against a good team."
- "We now know we have to get back in the gym and work after the loss against NYU. If we want a successful postseason, we need to use this and learn from it."
Next Up
- The Ducks return to the court Tuesday when they take on DeSales University in a de facto MAC Freedom regular season title matchup at 7:00 p.m. in Center Valley, Pa.
- The winner of the matchup will lock up the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and will clinch at least a share of the regular season title.
- Stevens knocked off DeSales in straight sets in the only known meeting between the two programs on Oct. 2, 2019.
- Live stats will be available on StevensDucks.com.
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